Can Meditation Cause Nightmares?

Can Meditation Cause Nightmares? (Helpful Content!)

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Meditation does not cause nightmares in and of itself. In most cases, if you have nightmares after meditating, they most likely would have happened anyway. That said, meditation can cause us to think more carefully about things which may be painful for us, and this could lead to nightmares in the short term.

 

Meditation won’t cause nightmares, then, in all likelihood.

Even if your meditation does bring things to the surface which cause you to have nightmares, you would have had those nightmares sooner or later.

Meditation helps us bring painful thoughts to the surface—where they can be confronted.

Let’s find out more.

Can Meditation Cause Nightmares?

 

Does meditation lead to nightmares?

In general, meditation does not lead to nightmares.

There is no direct, neurological reason why meditating before going to bed would cause nightmares.

Of course, dream psychologists and neurologists really don’t strictly agree on what causes nightmares, or even dreams, for that matter.

But there are some things we can say for sure.

Nightmares, at least some of the time and on some level, are reflections of repressed or subconscious thoughts or anxieties.

If we are worrying about a certain thing day after day, even if we have buried that worry deep down, it’s going to be reflected in our dreams.

But it also depends on how deeply you repress these thoughts—they might be so deep down that they don’t come to the surface even in dreams.

However, meditation is perhaps the supreme act of self-reflection.

It takes us inwards and forces us to be aware of our thoughts, even if to only let them pass by as we sit.

When we do this, repressed thoughts and anxieties are likely to rise to the surface.

If we meditate before bed, then this may lead to nightmares because our thoughts have come to the surface.

You might say that meditation has caused nightmares in this case, but this is not really the whole picture.

Again, eventually, one way or another, you would have had these nightmares anyway.

Nightmares are painful and none of us want to go through them.

But ultimately, there are things in our lives we have to face up to, and when we don’t, and sometimes even when we do, this can lead to nightmares.

Take strength in the knowledge that they will pass and the sun will rise again!

 

Does meditation cause vivid dreams?

A broader question is about whether meditation can be a cause of particularly vivid dreams in general.

Again, the simple answer is no.

The perceived vividness of your dreams has a great deal more to do with the quality of your sleep than with anything you did beforehand.

Of course, what you do before going to sleep can affect how you sleep.

When we sleep, we go through cycles over the course of the night.

The deepest of those cycles, REM or rapid eye movement sleep, is where most dreaming occurs.

How vivid our dreams appear to be is more a function of how deeply we are asleep than anything else.

If you are restless for whatever reason, such as anxiety, or simpler things like being uncomfortable, will impact the quality of your sleep.

This will lead to your dreams appearing more vivid and real.

Meditation works differently for everyone, and choosing to do it before bed might be better or worse for you.

It’s all about how it helps you sleep, rather than any inherent quality of meditation causing vivid dreams.

 

Can you stop nightmares from meditation?

If meditation appears to be causing you nightmares, then as I say, there is likely something deeper going on that meditation is bringing to the surface.

Your best chance of stopping this from happening is to confront what it may be that is causing the nightmares, as painful as it may be.

That said, the answer may be different for different people.

Like I said, though, as far as our current understanding of dreams goes, there can be no connection between meditation and dreams beyond how your meditation affects your dreams.

If you are having frequent nightmares, the best chance of stopping them is trying to figure out what is getting in the way of a good night’s sleep.

Once you can sleep more soundly, your nightmares will begin to dissipate—at least in most cases.

 

What are the negative effects of meditation?

Meditation can be a very useful tool, but it can also bring some difficult things to the surface.

It can, in that way, indirectly lead to anxiety and depression in some people.

However, it is really not the root cause of these things.

It is more that we are forced to confront things in a way that can be frightening and discomfiting for some people.

Meditation is not for everyone, of course, but in the vast majority of cases, it shows us what is negative in our lives, rather than being the cause of it as such.

It’s a rather difficult question, then, because while no one would say meditation is perfect and without negative effects, it can work wonders for most people in most situations.

 

So, in all likelihood, your meditation should not cause nightmares.

If you are having nightmares after meditating, then this most likely shows that you are working through what has been, up till now, a repressed painful memory.

Dealing with such things can be hard, but you can’t bury it deep forever.

In that sense, meditating before sleep is a great way to bring these things to the surface on your own terms.

 

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